Yep, as always seems to happen this time of year, the shows scheduled are changing faster than yours truly can keep up with -- a few shows slipped by me this last week, unfortunately (damn, that River Oaks Theater show sounded cool, too...), and didn't even make the most recent Rundown, so I figured I'd post a quick little note about some of the changed/added/cancelled shows yet to come...

Mon., December 31:
New Year's Eve Show, featuring Skyblue72, D.R.U.M., Snowshoe and Lewis, & Little Joe Washington @ Dean's Credit Clothing
The original listing for this one had somebody named "Toby Champagne" playing, but that's apparently bunk -- instead, Snowshoe and Lewis and the irrepressible Little Joe Washington are rounding out the show. Which ain't a bad thing.

Tues., January 1:
Mantis/Piano Vines @ Walter's on Washington
Okay, so this is like the Mystery Show From Hell -- two of my favorite under-the-radar local bands may or may not be playing tomorrow night at Walter's, but the show's only listed on the bands' respective Myspace pages (here and here) and nowhere else that I can find. If anybody else's playing, I've got no idea who it is, but if Mantis & Piano Vines are playing, then get your ass out of the house and nurse that hangover to some damn fine music.

Thurs., January 3:
Hank Williams III/Those Poor Bastards @ The Meridian
Sorry, y'all, but this one's been cancelled -- apparently Hank III's got a bad case of strep, which (as anybody who's had it knows) makes it real hard to sing, yell, or bellow. Ah, well.

Sat., January 5:
Dumbarton/The Eastern Sea/Earnie Banks/Elaine Greer/John Rawls @ Super Happy Fun Land
This one's had a bit of a lineup shift -- I Miss Being A Kid has apparently dropped off the bill, replaced by The Eastern Sea. Which, no offense to the Eastern Sea folks, really sucks, 'cause IMBAK play infrequently enough as it is. Damn. But hey, the bands playing are still definitely worth checking out...

Houston Food Bank Benefit, featuring The Riff Tiffs, B., Studemont Project, American Fangs, & Television Skies @ Numbers ($5/$7; showgoers asked to bring canned goods & blankets)
Can't believe I didn't hear about this one 'til now, especially given the general 1/5 insanity -- here's another excellent show to make your show-going decision that night even harder. The Riff Tiffs are pretty freakin' great, and I've heard good-good-good things about B. and American Fangs, in particular. And hey, it's a benefit for the Houston Food Bank, so maybe that'll tip the scales for you one way or the other...

Cinco De Ano, featuring Felipe Galvan y sus Carnales, Sister Sister y Los Misters, & more @ Fitzgerald's
Jesus. Could this Sat. get any more conflicted? Dang, man...it pains me in particular because I've been meaning to check out Felipe Galvan's new band for a while now. Argh.

Sat., January 12:
Deep Ella/Windsor Drive/The Finalist/Alpha Rev/The American Masquerade @ Fitzgerald's
Hadn't heard about this one, either, so I wanted to make sure to mention it, since I really dig both The Finalist & The American Masquerade (who are, incidentally, about as alike as chalk & cheese, as my wife would say). This one promises to be an interestingly diverse show.

Sat., January 19:
The Toasters/Ryan Scroggins & the Trenchtown Texans/Deals Gone Bad @ Fitzgerald's
Ooh, this is a biggie -- the one time I saw the Toasters play, back at the Abyss, the place was absolutely packed to the gills, and even though the H-town ska boom is behind us, I'm betting this show'll be crowded, too. Beyond the Toasters themselves, mind you, you really ought to go to check out local boys Ryan Scroggins & the Trenchtown Texans, 'cause they do some of the best trad-ska you're likely to find in our fair state, much less in this city.

Labels: H-Town News, Public Service Announcements, Things To Do, Things To See

gaijin || Link || E-mail || 0 comments

At the risk of being totally meta-referential by patting a guy on the back while he's patting me on mine, I'd like to urge all & sundry to check out Ramon Medina's two-barrelled blast of year-end wrapping up over at both the Free Press Houston and Nonalignment Pact sites. I've been meaning to point to Ramon's excellent writing at FPH for a while now, esp. his excellent interviews with Mlee of Hearts of Animals, Bring Back the Guns, and the Blades guys, and these two pieces are a nice bit of icing on the cake. There are many, many, many reasons to be very happy with the Houston music scene right now, and Ramon's a major one of 'em.

Labels: H-Town News, Musical Crap, Public Service Announcements, Things To Read

gaijin || Link || E-mail || 0 comments

Merry Chrismahanukwanzaamas to all! We here at SCR HQ are currently hip-deep in holiday insanity, with bellies full of cookies & eggnog & wassail & whatnot, but I didn't want to leave y'all hanging & wondering, "hey, what the hell happened to Space City since November?" We are still here, yes, and before the actual holiday hits, we wanted to let y'all know what's new.

First off, we've got a very cool new interview up with Cris Kirkwood, variously of the Meat Puppets and the Arizona penal system, courtesy of writer Tom K. Tom managed to catch the Puppets when they swung through back in October and corraled Cris for an entertaining Q&A session at about 2AM at the Proletariat. It's good stuff.

There's also a slew of new reviews up, including one for Austin-based instro-rockers My Education. The review's of a split-LP with weirdo glitch-hop guys Dälek, but they'll be playing with good-good-good locals Alkari and Hymn Six when they come through Rudyard's on Jan 5th.

We've also got a meta-review of sorts of the Grey Ghost CD-R series you can currently get a hold of up at Domy -- the review (by yours truly) is a little weird, particularly in that it's a review of three CDs you'll never, ever get. But don't let that get you down; I hear the latest installment, a CD-R of raw garage-punks Teenage Kicks, is up at Domy as of this past weekend, so if you make it there sometime this week, you might be able to snag your own for 3 measly bucks. (And yes, the band's good, although I'm a bit biased; anybody who takes their name from an Undertones song starts out a few yards ahead in my book.)

On the non-review front, we've finally got a couple more band writeups online, too. I'm not super happy with how they came out, but I found myself at a loss for appropriate words when it came to singing the praises of Hearts of Animals and Stadium, both of whom deserve large heaps of love from everybody, even outside this insular little/big city. And yeah, I know that with this HoA writeup and the Mlee Marie review linked above (as part of the Grey Ghost deal), I'm jumping a bit late onto the Mlee Suprean bandwagon. What can I say? I've dearly loved what I've heard over the past year or so, but I'm a Slow Bob when it comes to these things.

Interviews: Meat Puppets.

Featured Bands: Hearts of Animals & Stadium.

Reviews: Mlee Marie; BDM; Linus Pauling Quartet; My Education/Dälek; 1000 Miles From Home; The Story Of; Band of Horses; Caalma; Gnotes; & Tempo No Tempo.

See y'all in the new year!

Labels: Interviews, Reviews, Things To Do

gaijin || Link || E-mail || 0 comments

Yearggh. I need sleep. But before I pass out, Dear Reader, I feel obligated to let you know what wonders await you this holiday season. 'Cause boy howdy, is there a lot of it. So go on, ditch the parental units, lie and say your boss called you back in to work, whatever you have to do, and see some shows. You won't be disappointed. (And if you are, hey, just let Krampus know, and I'm sure I'll see some coal in my stocking...)

Sat., December 22:
We Are the Hollow Men Art Show, featuring Fatal Flying Guilloteens, The Jonbenet, The Dimes, Reverberation, Grant Olney and The Brokedown Gospel, B, & The Riff Tiffs @ 1620 Keene Street Warehouse (just N of downtown off Main; 8PM, $5/$7)
Ah, crap. I so wish this was on another night, y'know? I've sworn a blood oath to hit a friend's Christmas party, and I doubt the wife'll take kindly to me bailing after we've been there a half-hour or so. Which sucks, because this show's a veritable cornucopia of cool bands, from screamo heroes The Jonbenet to the ultra-aggro-math-noise Fatal Flying Guilloteens to the neo-psych-fuzz Riff Tiffs to straight-up smart indie-rockers The Dimes. Oh, and it's an art opening, apparently, although I dunno a damn thing about that part of it.

Chris Murray/Ryan Scroggins and the Trenchtown Texans @ The Continental Club
Yeah, so maybe the Christmas party's a blessing in disguise, 'cause if I could go, I'd be seriously torn between these first two shows. Ryan Scroggins & crew are pretty much the best ska band H-town's got going, and Chris Murray's one of my favorite people in the whole roots-ska/reggae movement; his stuff with King Apparatus is excellent, and his Venice Shoreline Chris track "Ex-Darling" is still one of my favorite ska songs of all time.

Secret Saturday Show, featuring Butch & more @ The Shady Tavern (1206 W. 20th St.; 12-5PM, free!)
Yep, it's that "Butch," the one you're also likely to see onstage Christmas Eve at Fitz. Hoo-ah.

The Armfar Collective Showcase, featuring The Baristas, Breathe In Your Neighborhood, B-Side, The Low Ends, & Dee Rail @ Super Happy Fun Land
I'm afraid I'm clueless as to the Armfar Collective, but what the hell -- I've heard a number of these folks are good, esp. the Baristas, BIYN, and the Low Ends. Check 'em out.

Monster Metal Holiday Bash, featuring Necrofaith, Nhuvasrim, Cryptic, Soul On Fire, Burnt Face Jack, Strattera, Epic, Shotgun Facelift, Lycophile, Temple of Wrath, Subtracting Grace, Last Rosary, Consumed, Almost Sober, Rotting Corpse, & Cenocide @ The Meridian
Urr. Metal good. Bang head good.

Sun., December 23:
Rick Smith Memorial Show, featuring Orouboros, Novox, & more @ Rudyard's
Man. I wish I could think of something faux-witty and funny to say about this one, but I just can't. Wish you were still around, Rick.

Mon., December 24:
Faithealer/Kingdom of Magic/This Year's Tiger @ The Mink (8PM)
Dunno the headliners, sorry, but I keep meaning to see This Year's Tiger -- I've been hearing really good things about 'em.

Tues., December 25:
Punk-Mas, featuring 30footFALL, Brian's Johnson, & The World's Most Dangerous Band @ Fitzgerald's
If it's Christmas, it's 30footFALL. Y'know, I first saw these guys play back in college (at the college, actually), about 15 years ago, and somehow, they still manage to blow the roof off. And that's in spite of being all "retired" & stuff.

Tody Castillo @ Rudyard's
Yep, Tody's up at Rudz, and that's always worth checking out. He's got a new album coming out soon, so hopefully he'll be throwing out a lot of new stuff...

The Handsomes/Thunderado and Friends/Katie Stuckey @ The Continental Club
Nice to see the Handsomes getting recognition in the ol' Chronic recently -- congrats, y'all. And ignore the haters; radio-friendly though they definitely are, these guys are one of the best, tightest, most entertaining bands in town, and the funk/pop/reggae/etc. thing they do always gives me this big, goofy grin.

Thurs., December 27:
Grupo Fantasma/Beetle @ The Continental Club
Honestly, I've got no clue what to expect from Grupo Fantasma, but each time they come through town, I hear good stuff about 'em. Cumbia, apparently, and that's an area I'm just about ignorant on.

Fri., December 28:
Dead Roses/A Pink Cloud/A Thousand Cranes/brown paper kites @ The Engine Room
Crazy noise...at the Engine Room? Wow. Not something you're likely to see every day, I'd bet...

Sat., December 29:
Judas Bear/Bright Men of Learning/Che Arthur/Elaine Greer & Band @ The Proletariat
Okay, so I would wax nostalgic about all the reunions coming out of the woodwork, but sadly, I didn't even realize Judas Bear were dead until long after they'd come & gone. D'oh. Anyway, this is Thane & co.'s return, which should be fun, and both Bright Men of Learning and Elaine Greer are very good.

Secret Saturday Show, featuring several mystery bands & DJs @ The Shady Tavern (1206 W. 20th St.; 12-5PM, free!)

The Capricorny Show2, featuring Anarchitex, Sad Pygmy, & Bad Samaritans @ Super Happy Fun Land
Sad Pygmy rules.

Grand Buffet/DJ Jester the Filipino Fist/Bring Back The Guns/Ceeplus Bad Knives @ Rudyard's
I dunno, I just like the thought of weird, wacky DJs trading off with Bring Back The Guns spastic noise-pop.

Mon., December 31:
Golden Axe/The Squishees/Kvalla @ Rudyard's
Dangit, I guess that 12/21 show with Kvalla got cancelled, eh? Ah, well -- this'll do. The band's the new mëtäl project of Jonxer Danny Mee, and the music I've heard so far's damn cool. Plus, the Squishees rock, and the Golden Axe guys are very nice.

New Year's Party, featuring The American Sharks, Cop Warmth, The Wiggins, & O Pioneers!!! @ Boondocks
From the noisier side of the indie-rock tracks, these folks are a pretty good cross-section of what's cool in H-town these days. I dig Cop Warmth & American Sharks, in particular.

5th Annual New Year's Noise, featuring Black Mayonnaise, Black Magic Marker, The Annoysters, Muzak John, Kairos, Chiasma, Douglas Ferguson, Bully Pulpit, Concrete Violin, Wall With One Side, Y2kazoo, amputee, & more @ Super Happy Fun Land
Y'know, I can't say I'm a noise fan, honestly -- it gives me a headache, most of the time -- but I respect the hell out of the folks in this city who craft noisy, messy, spastic stuff that'll never get played on the radio, nonetheless. They do what they do for love, not money, and they're going to keep doing it 'til they die. It may not be everybody's cup of tea (er, battery acid), but H-town Noise has been around since before I got here, and I can't imagine our little scene without it.

New Year's Eve Show, featuring Skyblue72, D.R.U.M., & Toby Champagne @ Dean's Credit Clothing
Should be a good'un; my three-year-old really loves Skyblue72, and my wife used to drag me to the Bob Marley Festival just to see D.R.U.M.

Pegstar presents New Year's Eve, featuring Ladyheat, Ninevolt, The Tontons, & Alarma @ Notsuoh
Yep, another good bet -- I'm not real familiar with these folks, unfortunately, but have heard good reports about all of 'em.

Fri., January 4:
Ragged Hearts/Juan Louder/The Bowen Brothers @ Rudyard's
Dunno either of the openers, but Ragged Hearts are pretty great -- they look like they should be playing in a squat on the Lower East Side, but they sound like a bunch of alt-country kids. And they do it well, too.

B./The Church of Philadelphia/Hollywood Black/Buxton @ The Loft (The Woodlands)
Looking doubly good on this one... First off, it's the Church of Philadelphia, who are one of the few bands that make me want to just stand there and bask in the beautiful, amazing sounds they make, and it's also the second(?) show put on by brand-new booking crew Kids Eat Free, which is at least partly run by the CoP folks. It's gonna be good, I swear, so all you Woodlands/Spring/whatever kids, get out of the house & go.

Sat., January 5:
Dumbarton/I Miss Being A Kid/Earnie Banks/Elaine Greer/John Rawls @ Super Happy Fun Land
Damn, I wish I could just say, "go here," 'cause the I Miss Being A Kid folks have warned me that this'll be their last show. Which is a damn shame, 'cause they're good (as are Earnie Banks & Elaine Greer). Fingers crossed that they change their minds...

Hootenanny!, featuring Blades (as Foo Fighters), John Sears (as Sam Cooke), Indian Jewelry (as Depeche Mode), Laws (as Creedence Clearwater Revival), The Jonx (as Nomeansno), The Dimes (as The Pixies), The Mathletes (as Talking Heads), Panic in Detroit (as Jawbox), Something Fierce (as The Clash), Satin Hooks (as The Wipers), AWESOME! (as Weezer), & Papermoons (as Pedro the Lion) @ The Backroom (The Mink)
Yep, rambled about this one elsewhere already, so I'll spare you. Just go.

Sad Like Crazy @ The Proletariat
Oh, this is awesome. Never thought I'd see the day, although I'd certainly hoped to. Ex-Celindine/-Trompedo/-Schrasj crew comes back together to do some shows -- anybody know if it's only Trey, Mari, & Thane, or if Gram's coming back from Rogue Wave-dom in California?

Secret Saturday Show, featuring several mystery bands & DJs @ The Shady Tavern (1206 W. 20th St.; 12-5PM, free!)

My Education/Alkari/Hymn Six @ Rudyard's
I was ready to blow this one off somewhat, actually, but then I listened back to some My Education stuff I picked up a while back and found myself enjoying it. Like Explosions in the Sky but less morose, if you get what I mean. A listen to Alkari's excellent "The Code" tipped the scales.

J.J. Worthen (CD release)/Thee Armada/The 71's/Three Fantastic/Electric Touch @ Warehouse Live
This is a weird, weird, weird bill. Worthen, as far as I can tell, is a folky singer/songwriter. Thee Armada are a Marshall-stacks-on-10 post-emo rock band. Three Fantastic are a quirky bunch of pseudo-funksters with ties to the whole Sprawl/Middlefinger/Clouseaux axis of bands. About the only thing they have in common is that they're good.

Tony Booth/Miss Leslie and Her Juke Jointers/Molly and the Ringwalds @ The Continental Club
Yay, Miss Leslie's playing again. Folks, if you like your country with more Flatt & Scruggs in it than Toby Keith, this is where you need to be. She's & her Juke Jointers are incredible.

Wed., January 9:
Fantasys Core/Motion Turns It On @ Walter's on Washington
Cool local prog band (Motion Turns It On) + crazed, baseball-obsessed Japanese rock band = a weird, most likely interesting night.

Fri., January 25:
Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings/The Ivan Meliv Band @ Walter's on Washington
Yes, I know I'm skipping ahead a week or two, but fuck it -- I've just got to mention this one, 'cause it's gonna be mind-blowing. I'm talking so mind-blowing I almost didn't want to mention it here, in case I couldn't get tickets. Cool, funky, expertly played soul sung by a lady who sounds like she stepped off of one of your parents' old 45s.

Have a merry Christmas, or Hanukkah, or Festivus, or whatever it is you do...

Labels: H-Town News, Things To Do

gaijin || Link || E-mail || 3 comments

Jee-sus 'effin Kee-rist, it's been a hell of a couple of weeks. Yours truly has been hammered by multiple deadlines in advance of the coming days off (all next week! woo!), and as a result I'm just now managing to climb out from under my work-imposed rock to discover, holy crap, there's been a lot going on. Rather than post individually about each & everything thing, though (the prospect of which makes me break out in a cold sweat), I'm gonna try to hit as many as I can in one big catch-all post before I attempt to make it out to the 2nd annual Suspects reunion show tonight. Here goes...

• Latch Key Kids Reunion!: A little birdie emailed to let us here at SCR know that longtime local hardcore heroes the Latch Key Kids are planning to reunite, at least temporarily, & play one or more shows this coming February. That's all I've got on that one, unfortunately, but keep an eye out -- these guys were part of the whole early-to-mid-'90s pop-punk/hc scene, and they were pretty great while they were around. More details if/when I get 'em. I smell the scent of reunion in the air; hell, even Toho Ehio's apparently playing again in Feb...

• Butch @ Secret Saturday!: And speaking of blasts from the past, not only will 30footFALL be doing their traditional Punk-Mas show on December 25th up at Fitzgerald's (with Brian's Johnson & The World's Most Dangerous Band), but I hear frontman Butch will also be playing his own solo stuff -- which is apparently not to be confused w/30fF's music -- this coming Saturday at the Secret Saturday Shows deal. Which will, obviously, be very cool. Damn, gotta love those little birds passing out info like that. (Check the SSS Myspace, linked above, for the where/when/how.)

• Sad Like Crazy Back Together: Yes, it's true -- expat Houstonian indie-rock champs Sad Like Crazy have reformed, praise be to the gods, and are playing again. Better yet, they're playing here, at The Proletariat, on January 5th. Oh, and per their Myspace page, they're also writing & recording new songs. Hell, yes. Thanks, Santa! This beats the hell out of the power-washer I asked for...

• The Skyline Network Lists Every Piece of Good H-Town Music Made This Year: Holy shit, y'all. Due to my head being down all week, I've been totally missing out on The Skyline Network's "The Skyline 50" -- ADR has just finished listing off his fave 50 Houston-made songs of the past year, covering the gamut from The Western Civilization to Linus Pauling Quartet to By the End of Tonight to Arthur Yoria to The Tenspeeds. And damn, is it cool. I'm feeling the need to print the whole thing out & then go hit SoundEx yet again this weekend to pick up the stuff I've missed. Go, read, now: Part One; Part Two; Part Three; Part Four; and Part Five. You'll regret it if you don't.

• Houston Calling's Top 10 List Up: Yep, SCR friend/sometime contributor David Cobb has got his own list of top ten releases this year up on the ever-cool Houston Calling site. I read it and feel like a big slacker, but I swear, I'm sticking to last year's scheme of "best-of" lists only happening after the New Year. It'll get done, honest...

• Hootenanny On Its Way: More Skyline news...I dunno how the guy does it, but that dang site's throwing yet another show/shindig on January 5th. I know, I know -- the conflict with the Sad Like Crazy show above about makes my head crack open, but still...

  Anyway, this one's called Hootenanny, and it's gonna feature a ton of good local folks playing as the bands they feel influenced (at least somewhat) by. Blades will be playing as the Foo Fighters, John Sears as Sam Cooke (wha?), Indian Jewelry as Depeche Mode (ooh, I wanna see that...), Laws as Creedence, The Jonx as Nomeansno (although I'm bummed that they won't be playing "The Tower"; I tried to talk Danny into it, but no luck), The Dimes as the Pixies; The Mathletes as the Talking Heads; Grant Olney and the Brokedown Gospel (which includes ex-members of Panic in Detroit!) as Jawbox (double "!"), Something Fierce as The Clash (nice...), Satin Hooks as the Wipers, Awesome! as Weezer, & Papermoons as Pedro the Lion. Wow. It'll be at The Backroom of The Mink, so make plans to stop by.

  UPDATE: Whoops...sorry, I confused my mega-shows, apparently -- Grant Olney and the Brokedown Gospel, who I've been told include ex-Panic in Detroit people, are playing tomorrow night at the We Are The Hollow Men art/music deal. Panic in Detroit themselves, at least according to the Hootenanny flyer, will indeed be playing, I guess in their original incarnation & not as somebody's backing band.

• The Proletariat Definitely Closing: Fuck. This makes me really freakin' sad, although I can understand Proletariat owner Denise's feelings on it. Check out Chris Gray's excellent interview with Ms. Ramos for the details, but the upshot is this: train's a-comin', and the Proletariat's gettin' outta Dodge before it does. sigh. I'm sure I've said it before, but the place'll be missed.

• Southmore Gone, Too? Again?: Well, I'd thought the Southmore House had successfully relocated, but apparently that's not the case. I'm told that the ever-lurking beast the NIMBY Noise Complainer has once again shut the damn place down. Crap. No clue what that'll mean to the upcoming shows still on the schedule for the House; if anybody knows, tell me, eh?

• Local Booking People Awful Quiet: I dunno about you, but barring a few big shows it sure seems like the local booking stuff of the past year has slowed way down. The past year or two, we've seen a ton of Houston-area booking groups pop up, and for a while there the sheer mass of shows going on all over the city & the 'burbs was insane. And great, of course, but still insane. Lately, though, a lot of folks have been real quiet -- hopefully that doesn't mean they're going away...? I spoke with Willow of Hate Tank recently, and he said he was having to slow down a lot both because of burnout and the $$$ he lost this past summer putting on shows, which is totally understandable. He said, though, that he didn't think he could quit, so hopefully there'll be more HT shows to come...

• Super Happy Still Alive: Thank God not all local venue news is craptastic like the above. Seems the good people at Super Happy Fun Land have signed on the dotted line for their new space and are ready to share it with the world. As of late January, SHFL will be moving to 3801 Polk Street (77003), over east of downtown in those cool old warehouses. Good to hear, y'all.

• Mel House on Canadian MTV: I've threatened it once or twice now, but as of yesterday, it's the real deal -- H-town musician/writer/director Mel House now has his excellent video for Jonah Matranga's "Not About A Girl Or A Place" up on Fuse, aka "Canada's MTV but with more actual videos." Which is a major thing for an indie horror filmmaker like Mel; congrats, man!

• David Sadof on Chron.com: HandStamp's Sara Cress has been trying to recruit local music folk to start up their own "reader blogs" on the chron.Commons Website, and lo and behold, now David Sadof, formerly of the Lunar Rotation and High Fidelity radio shows, now has his own blog for all of Houston to see. Cool...gonna have to add it to the ol' Google Reader. Kudos to David and to Orange Is In's Jeff Balke for putting together some good stuff to read.

  (I'm somewhat embarrassed, by the way, to admit that when Sara sent out her email, I emailed back and said, "sure, I'll do it!"...only to absolutely zero. Sadly, I've come to the realization that I can barely handle this Website/blog, much less a whole other daily-written thing. Maybe one of these days...)

• Thee Armada Destroys Britney Spears & Makes a Video: Okay, I'll grant that it's not that tough of a task to blow Ms. Spears out of the water these days, but it still does my soul good to see that local boys Thee Armada whomped up on all comers at the end of last month on KRBE's "New Music Faceoff," where their track "Rock, Shock & Load" was thrown up against a ton of new songs by big-big-big-name acts and came out on top. Seriously -- they beat Britney & the Timbaland/Fall Out Boy "duet," both of which well and truly deserved the smackdown. Good job, you guys.

  Also, in more recent Thee Armada news, the band will be filming a video for "Rock, Shock & Load" tomorrow, Saturday, December 22nd -- it'll be at Irma's, at the corner of Commerce & Chenevert, over by Minute Maid Park, at about 3PM. If you want to be in the video, show the heck on up (under-18s, get your parents to sign the consent form on the band's Myspace) and rock out.

• Give Food, Feel Good: I know there are about a bazillion food drives going on this year, but dangit, this one's real close to home (spiritually, at least) -- Rudyard's is currently holding a canned-food drive at the club. It started a few weeks back, but hey, it'll be running 'til Jan. 1st, so you've still got time to go and assuage the credit-consumer guilt for buying that flat-screen LCD.

Argh. I feel like there's more, but that's all I can do for now...

Labels: H-Town News, Musical Crap, Public Service Announcements, Things To Do, Things To Hear, Things To Read

gaijin || Link || E-mail || 2 comments

As any more-than-casual reader of this little site probably knows by now, I really and truly heart Austin folk/rock/pop/whatever band Okkervil River. Frontman Will Sheff is hands down one of the best, most talented songwriters going these days; ignore 'em, and you're seriously missing out.

Anyway, the reason I'm bringing up OR now is because, well, they've handed their fans (and anybody else who's interested) a happy little Christmas gift, in the form of their new free, downloadable Golden Opportunities "mixtape". It was recorded live on the road over the past year or so and is a cheery (yeah, right...) little pile of cover songs, with the band interpreting Serge Gainsbourg ("I Came Here to Say I'm Going Away," w/lyrics apparently translated from French by Sheff), John Cale ("Antarctica Starts Here"), Randy Newman ("Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear"), and Joni Mitchell ("The Blonde in the Bleachers"), among others. Just stop by the band's Website, and you can download your own copy (complete with printable CD sleeve) and get to listening.

I've already checked it out, myself, via the iPod and a drive to work or two, and it's not bad -- I feel a bit embarrassed to admit it, but my favorite track's actually the live version of one of the band's own songs, "Listening to Otis Redding at Home During Christmas," but that's largely because it's one of my all-time fave Okkervil tracks to begin with. (It also happens to be the most beautifully, crushingly sad holiday song you're likely to hear, barring maybe Silkworm's version of "In the Bleak Midwinter.") Beyond that, though, I'm impressed by how much the covers sound like, well, Okkervil River songs. If I didn't know better, I'd be fooled on most of the tracks into thinking that the bulk of the rest of the mixtape was penned by the band, as well. Which is a good thing, because they pull it off nicely, especially on the Gainsbourg and Cale tracks.

The only one where I knew immediately -- despite never having heard the song before, mind you -- that it wasn't the band's song was the Randy Newman song. Apparently Randy Newman just plain defies camouflage somehow; take that as good or bad, as you will...

Labels: Musical Crap, Things To Download, Things To Hear

gaijin || Link || E-mail || 0 comments

It's gonna be a good weekend, y'all. Why? Well, because starting tonight we've got the damn-cool-sounding Texas Gone Garage festival going on at Rudyard's and Walter's on Washington, with a couple dozen of the best garage-y bands around (some local, some not) gracing the stage and getting rowdy (okay, I'm guessing on that one).

Not only will talented here-and-now heroes like Something Fierce, Born Liars, Linus Pauling Quartet, Hearts of Animals, The Monocles, American Sharks, & The Takes be playing their little hearts out, but this weekend will also see the triumphant return of not one, not two, but three H-town greats of days gone by: classic pop-punkers Dig Dug, psych-rock legends The Mike Gunn, and Houston's once-upon-a-time garage-rock darlings The Mirrors (plus a solo set by Mirrors frontman Greg Ashley and an appearance by Omari, ex-The Jewws, current Alright Tonight). Holy fucking shit, people.

The Rudz shows, regrettably, are 21+ only, but Travis at He Said She Said is looking out for The Kids, too -- the Walter's shows on Saturday & Sunday are both daytime gigs and are all-ages. And I'm not totally positive, but I think the $10 cover gets you a wristband for the whole shebang. Although I could be wrong about that...

Either way, I'm really psyched about this one -- I can't make it out tonight, sadly (company Christmas party), or tomorrow (friend flying in from France), but I'm gonna try my best to get on out on Sunday to check out the lineup that night at Rudz. Here's the latest schedule I've seen -- check the He Said She Said Myspace for up-to-the-minute details:

Friday, December 14th - Rudyard's (Night Show; $10)
8:00 - 8:25 - The Monocles
8:45 - 9:05 - Welfare Mothers
9:20 - 9:45 - Bad Rackets
10:00 - 10:30 - Born Liars
10:45 - 11:15 - The Matt Mayo Band
11:30 - 12:00 - Alright Tonight
12:15 - 1:00 - The Ugly Beats
1:15 - 2:00 - Amplified Heat

Saturday, December 15th - Walter's on Washington (Day Show; Free)
3:00 - 3:20 - Teenage Kicks
3:35 - 4:00 - Bad Sports
4:15 - 4:45 - The Uptown Bums
5:00 - 5:30 - American Sharks
5:45 - 6:15 - Something Fierce

Saturday, December 15th - Rudyard's (Night Show; $10)
8:00 - 8:20 - The Takes
8:35 - 9:00 - Maaster Gaiden
9:15 - 9:45 - The Teeners
10:00 - 10:30 - The Ape-Shits
10:45 - 11:20 - Something Fierce
11:35 - 12:05 - Dig Dug
12:20 - 12:50 - The Hex Dispensers
1:05 - 1:45 - The Pumpers

Sunday, December 16th - Walter's on Washington (Day Show; Free)
3:00 - 3:30 - Eat Grapes
3:45 - 4:15 - Sew What
4:30 - 5:00 - Black Black Gold
5:15 - ??? - Greg Ashley (solo)

Sunday, December 16th - Rudyard's (Night Show; $10)
8:00 - 8:30 - Sew What
8:45 - 9:15 - The(e) Freed
9:30 - 10:00 - Hearts of Animals
10:15 - 11:30 - The Mike Gunn
11:45 - 12:45 - Linus Pauling Quartet
1:00 - 2:00 - The Mirrors

Hope you can make it out; it'll definitely be worth vacating the couch for a while, I'd say. Hell, what with the writers' strike and all, it's not like there's much good on TV right now anyway, right?

Labels: H-Town News, Public Service Announcements, Things To Do

gaijin || Link || E-mail || 0 comments

Yep, it's happening again, believe it or not -- since their last reunion show last January went off like a bomb, H-town ska legends The Suspects have decided to, well, do it again. They'll be playing at The Continental Club next Friday, December 21st, with The Aqua Velva & '80s cover act Molly and the Ringwalds. Which is, uh, gonna sound awful familiar, 'cause I think they played with the A.V. last time, too, and the show was definitely at the Continental. Why mess with a good thing, right?

Anyway, whether you caught them last time they reunited or not, I guarantee that this will be a good show. It can't not be a good show, I swear (well, unless you hate ska, that is, in which case your mileage may vary). I'm gonna try my damnedest to get out of the house & go, myself, despite all the holiday insanity that'll be going on right around that time. Oh, and if you want to check out what the band sounds like, visit their Myspace or download some lovingly-ripped (w/permission, of course) MP3s here.

Of course, seeing as this is the second time they've done this (not counting the everybody-in-from-all-incarnations final shows back when the band actually broke up), I have to ask: could it be that the band's having second thoughts about this whole "breakup" thing? It's been 5 years, they've all had some time apart...maybe it's time to give it another shot? The geographical scattering could make things difficult, sure, but hey, weirder shit's happened...

Labels: H-Town News, Public Service Announcements, Things To Do, Things To Download

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It just seems like it's been one thing after another lately, doesn't it? Clubs closing down left and right (R.I.P., Cosmos Cafe, the most recent casualty that I've heard about), musicians passing away or getting injured (I'm sure everybody's heard about Pimp C's untimely death -- heck, it made the nightly news last night -- but there's also local musician Chris King, who per the folks on the Last Concert Cafe mailing list was in a car wreck over the weekend and was pretty badly hurt; more info here and here...), folks leaving town (like Lanky or bound-for-Austin Matt Sonzala), and even local video stores and theatres going belly-up or getting torn down (Movies The Store is gone, and the Landmark River Oaks Theatre may soon be, too)...it's been a parade of craptacular news of late.

Dammit, I need some good news. Seriously. Otherwise, no amount of holiday cheer is gonna keep me afloat. So here are some good, happy, to-be-thankful-for things to keep us all from getting too down in the dumps:

• Super Happy Fun New Home!: Yep, Super Happy Fun Land has reportedly found a new home, over in the east-of-downtown warehouses near the Last Concert Cafe (near the Atomic Cafe, maybe? is that still around?). And thank goodness for that, because not only does this city desperately need a weirdo-music/art/whatever place like SHFL, but downtown is seriously in need of upping its coolness quotient. I dunno if the deal's final yet, but the SHFLers have nailed down at least a date range for the move: January 11th through January 23rd. If you want to help -- having seen the old SHFL, I can attest that moving will be a monumental task -- and email "info" at "superhappyfunland dot com". Help 'em out, eh?

• Southmore, Too!: I hadn't realized 'til recently that the Southmore House had found a new place to dwell, too -- they're now cohabitating, as it were, with the Bill Hicks Resurrection Labs at 2915 Delafield. Big "thanks" to their Bill Hicks Labs compatriots for putting 'em up...

• Cactus Does Shows!: Ah, nice... Not that I don't love SoundEx, but when I think of fun in-store performances, Cactus Music is what immediately jumps to mind, mostly because, well, I saw more bands play there back in its Mk. 1 Alabama days. And thankfully, with the rejuvenated, reopened (and freakin' awesome; I blew a ridiculous amount of $$$ there recently on stocking stuffer joke gifts & random CDs) store back with the living, so too are their in-store shows, starting tomorrow. They've got Ben Lee playing this Thursday, December 6th, at 6PM, which sounds intriguing (I haven't heard any of Lee's last few albums, but I liked the first few quite a bit), and then they've got The Derailers and The Gougers on December 7th and 8th, respectively. Hot damn, I'm glad Cactus is alive & kicking again. (Oh, and it's now over at 2110 Portsmouth, across from the 59 Diner.)

• The Sammies!: Local fave The Skyline Network's answer to the Houston Press Awards, except a lot more straightforward, category-wise. Go, vote, and let your favorite Houston musician/band/artiste bask in the warm glow of local-scenester adulation.

• Stuff Online at the Free Press!: I'm a confirmed fan of the Free Press Houston, but for some damn reason, I hadn't been able to find much of the mag's content on their Website for quite a long while. Which sucks, 'cause they don't even drop the HP in my part of town, much less the FP. Post-Website update, though, they are an online-music-coverin' machine, with LP4 ringmaster Ramon Medina seemingly leading the charge -- his article on the excellent Hearts of Animals is particularly killer.

• The Judy's on CD!: Not sure where I saw this first, 'cause it popped up on my Google Reader from all over the place at once -- TSN, Houston Calling, the Hands Up board, wherever. Anyway, the upshot is that the back catalog of inimitable works created by The Judy's, possibly the most-beloved H-town band ever (locally, at least), is now available on CD via the band's own resurrected (was it ever really dead?) Wasted Talent Records label. Just in time for Christmas, naturally; place an order for your nearest & dearest now.

• Rosa's Ditch Water Photo Zine!: I picked up local photog/scenester Rosa Guerrero's new "fotozine," Ditch Water, at SoundEx last weekend, and I'm very glad I did. Not only is it cool to see actual, real-live paper zines once more (found a few other new ones at Domy, as well), but it's awesome to be able to finally put names to faces for some of the local (and non-local) music folk Rosa's photographed over the past couple of years. For a homebody like myself, that's kinda neat. Plus, she's a darn good photographer -- I think my fave photo is the one of Chris Ryan (I think that's him, anyway) sitting on a chair outside Notsuoh as the Metrorail train blurs past. Or maybe the one with the guy (Tody Castillo, maybe?) crouching down behind his old-school amp, with the amp in sharp focus and the guy blurred. Nice. Get your copy soon, as there're only 50 in existence, and I've got #12 in hand...

There. I feel better now. Maybe the scene's not doomed, after all...

Labels: H-Town News, Public Service Announcements, Things To Do, Things To Get, Things To Hear, Things To Read

gaijin || Link || E-mail || 2 comments

Ooh, cool. Spoke (okay, emailed) recently with JD, the mystery being behind the Secret Saturday Shows phenomenon -- previously posted about here, and which is a better and better idea the more I think about it -- and he let slip a few details about upcoming SSSes.

No dates, mind you, but for players he threw out garage-punks The Monocles and old-old-old-school pop-punk guys Dig Dug, the latter of which makes me very happy, being as I loved those guys back in the Act Your Age days. It's awesome that they're playing again. Oh, and in JD's words:

"one week we will have a acoustic countryish performance from a man named BUTCH!. he was in another bnad you might have heard but he doesn't want it tagged with this event."

Make of that whatever you want, but note that it's not Butch's band that'll be playing, just him. I'll leave it to you to realize which Butch it is he's talking about. If you want to maybe catch the Monocles, Dig Dug, or Butch (or all three, whichever), you're gonna have to head on up to the Shady Tavern & try your luck -- give it a shot.

On top of all this wonderfulness, JD reports that Secret Saturday Shows is going to be working with the Gearage Sale guys to host a musical gear swap meet of sorts from 1-5PM, with folks coming by to buy, sell, or trade their music gear, whether it's mics, amps, or whatnot. Get on out if you can; this SSS thing is a cool idea, and it needs to keep rolling...

Labels: H-Town News, Public Service Announcements, Things To Do

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Okay, so I really should be doing, um, actual work, but I stumbled across a couple of things today that are begging me to post about 'em, even if ever so briefly. I'm not particularly up on what movies are coming down the pipe (I tuned out of the whole Cloverfield thing once I realized I couldn't tell the real viral marketing sites from the fake ones), being as I only read AintItCoolNews about once every six months for a half-hour or so, just long enough to get good and mystified as to how those people have the energy to rant about things the way they do. So these two upcoming films came as a total shock to me (despite the fact that the first one won the Prize of the Jury at Cannes; boy, am I out of the loop...):

• Persepolis: I'm totally, utterly over the moon about this one. I really enjoyed Marjane Satrapi's first Persepolis graphic novel (need to get the second) about growing up in Tehran in those days after the Shah & the CIA took out Mossadegh and right when the Iranian Revolution hit; it's a fascinating, soul-baring read, and I love how Satrapi doesn't pull any punches with regard to her childhood viewpoints on things. Now, somehow, the books have been made into an actual movie, and thank whatever deity you look to, it's a cartoon. Not that I didn't like 300 or anything, but that kind of cartoon-looking-but-real filmmaking would've fallen utterly flat here. Instead, it almost reminds me of Madeline in its overtly cartoonish style, or maybe The Triplets of Belleville; check it out:

  
  

• War Inc.: First thought: "holy crap -- they made a sequel to Grosse Pointe Blank!" Second thought: "uh, not quite..." I mean, there's John Cusack as the amoral-but-uncertain hitman who offers pithy observations on life and death and all the rest, there's sister Joan as his(?) assistant, and there's the inevitable black humor you get when an assassination attempt takes a surreal turn. There's no Martin Blank this time, though, but "Brand Hauser," which is one of the dumbest names ever handed to a character, and the film's set in a "fictional" country called Turaqistan that's pretty much totally controlled by a company called Tamerlane. Whose logo, I should add, looks a heck of a lot like a certain bright red corporate logo I used to see a lot of during my day. Anyway, I'm not sure how this'll go -- it could be great or it could really suck. Either way, I think it's worth a look...

Labels: Entertainobabble, Moo-vies, Random Rambling, Things To See

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Seemingly in an effort to prove once more that Houston drummers just don't freakin' sleep, local drum god, Houston Press writer, and SCR contributor guy Danny Mee deserves a mention today both for his brand-new band Kvalla and for a brand new track, "Highway At Night", up on the Myspace page of his "real" band, the always mindblowing Jonx. (Oh, and he also drums from time to time for Inoculist & something called Inscrutable Vocabulary. Again: no sleep, which leaves more time for productive things like bands.)

The latter of the two shows off just why those Jonx fellas rule the freakin' stage -- surging, simmering, NoMeansNo-sounding bass, sharp-edged guitars that meander tensely about like a crazy person muttering to themselves on the street but about to snap and punch some random passer-by, and thundering, complex drums that make me think of Fugazi. If this is a hint of what's to come for the next album, y'all, I need to know about it when it's out, immediately if not sooner.

Kvalla, on the other hand, is, as its Scandinavian-sounding(?) name (which I've Googled to no avail, unfortunately) suggests, is full-on, growling-and-roaring, invoking-the-god-of-thunder-above mëtäl. Grawr. The band's new-new-new -- their first show will be on December 21st up at Rudyard's with the aforementioned Jonx and The Squishees -- but the music they've already got hammered out sounds pretty damn good. Epic, bass-heavy, overfuzzed, crushing metal that brings to mind (favorably) Mastodon, Pelican, High on Fire, and Early Man, all of which is extremely cool by me. Can't wait to see what these guys do.

(And yes, if you'd asked me a few years ago if I ever thought I'd be saying that about a Houston metal band, I would've laughed in your face; my, how things change...)

Labels: H-Town News, Pseudo-Reviews, Things To Do, Things To Hear, Things To See

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